Speakers

Extensive research efforts have been devoted to the development of alternative battery chemistry to replace the current technology of lithium-ion batteries(LIBs). Here, we demonstrate that the [Li, Na]-SO2 battery chemistry, already established 30 years ago, has considerable potential to be regarded as a candidate for post-LIBs when proper nanotechnology is exploited. The recently developed nanostructured carbon materials greatly improve the battery performances of the [Li,Na]−SO2 cells, including a reversible capacity higher than 1000 mAh g−1 with a working potential of 3 V and excellent cycle performance over 150 cycles, and provide a theoretical energy density of about 651 Wh kg−1, which is about 70% higher than that of the currently used LIB. And in addition, we demonstrate a new type of room temperature rechargeable battery that employs CuCl2 cathode material with SO2-based inorganic liquid electrolyte. The cell delivers a high energy density of ~580 Wh kg−1 with superior capacity retention over 1,000 cycles. These excellent electrochemical performances are mainly attributed to the use of the SO2-based electrolyte, which guarantees a reversible conversion reaction between CuCl2 and CuCl with [Li,Na]Cl. We also demonstrated that the proposed battery chemistry can be extended to other Cu halide materials including CuBr2 and CuF2, which also show highly promising battery performances as cathode materials for the [Li,Na]−Cu halide battery system.